R4 Emulator/Piracy Devices Now Illegal in the UK

R4's range of DS cards provide Nintendo's handheld with a range of multimedia and homebrew applications... but also allow the entire games lineup to be pirated and downloaded for free. Nintendo has previously blamed piracy for a 50% decrease in European sales- and has been aggressively pushing for R4's devices to be outlawed in the UK. Today, they've finally succeeded.

A UK judge has made a landmark ruling to ban the entire range of R4 products. Whilst it's still technically legal to own an R4 device, it's now illegal to advertise, stock or sell the cards. Naturally, downloading and playing ROMs is still absolutely against the law... even for games you have legally purchased. Many people make this mistake.

On the one hand, we will salute any company for successfully defending their intellectual rights and hardworking developers. However, there's no denying that the R4 cards are a minority device that still requires (and incentivizes) people to buy a DS in the first place. Better not tell Nintendo about the Dingoo A320, then... [Develop Online]

The King of Pop may be dead and buried... but he's dominating the news today. Ubisoft has predicted that Michael Jackson: The Experience, the upcoming multiplatform dance title featuring songs and videos from the late singer, will shift over a million copies.

"We feel that this title will definitely be a million-seller. We hope that it will be one of the bigger titles for this Christmas season. It's a unique game in its genre, allowing fans to step into the shoes of Michael Jackson." -UK MD Rob Cooper to MCV

They're probably right. Partly because MJ has a solid selection of songs, partly because his death has immortalised the music and mainly because the game's coming out on every home console, household appliance and electrical device out there.

Secondly, and somewhat more pettily, the Michael Jackson estate has 'objected' to the awesome Thriller zombie in PopCap's massively popular Plants vs Zombies.

“The Estate of Michael Jackson objected to our use of the ‘dancing zombie’ in PLANTS vs. ZOMBIES based on its view that the zombie too closely resembled Michael Jackson."

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who's wrong or right. PopCap have agreed to remove the offending undead from the iPhone version and upcoming XBLA port- as well as replacing him in title updates for existing versions. This seems like a massive overreaction to a good-natured Easter egg and free publicity that's been around for a while... and you have to wonder if Ubisoft's advised them to do it. [MTV]

Valve: "Who Knows" about Left 4 Dead PS3?

Valve's love knows no bounds- and since E3, they've even finally welcomed the Sony crowd into the fold. PR Head Honcho Doug Lombardi has revealed that Valve will be taking a 'wait and see approach' when it comes to porting some of the big name 360 exclusives titles over to the PS3.

"Who knows what the future will bring?"

In other news, Lombardi reiterated that Portal 2 will not use Playstation Move or 3D support. I'm afraid that the game's just going to have to stand on its own merits without resorting to expensive new tech. To be honest, I'm not really that disappointed... [PSM via CVG]

Actually, the legality of playing backups of games you've purchased depends on your point of view. There are a number of conflicting laws on the subject, and which of them takes precedent will only be clarified in the unlikely event that it's ever tested in a court of law.

Actually, the letter of the law states that ROMs are only legal if they're homebrew/freeware or you personally make a backup image of a game you already own.

On the other hand, yeah, there are plenty of ways one could get out of a hypothetical courtroom situation... but as you say, the chance of it ever coming to that is absolutely minimal. These new UK laws are designed to slap retailers and importers- who are the only people worth prosecuting.